0:00

Whenever I'm talking to homesteaders of

0:02

any kind from any part of the country, whether

0:04

they have a big property or a small one, I

0:07

would say the reoccurring theme that I hear

0:09

over and over again that's universal

0:11

to all of us is that

0:14

so many times projects on the homestead

0:17

our best laid plans, our big food

0:19

production goals, they just don't

0:22

happen like we want

0:24

them to, or that we think

0:26

they will. So

0:28

I think this is a topic that is

0:30

really important to start to get cozy

0:32

with if you're going to be a homesteader, or you already

0:35

are a homesteader, because failure is inevitable.

0:38

And when I say the word failure, I think

0:40

to a lot of culture that has a lot of negative

0:42

connotations, to me, I tend to be a lot

0:44

more comfortable with that word. When

0:47

I say it, it's not something that's final or finished,

0:49

but it is a necessary part of

0:51

learning and growth. And I think that's

0:54

often why people don't like to start new

0:56

things, whether that's homesteading or a business

0:58

or a new hobby or a new sport

1:00

is that no one likes the feeling

1:02

of being a beginner, because beginning

1:05

something requires a lot of mess ups,

1:07

a lot of failures, if you will, and

1:09

a lot of missteps. And so whether you

1:11

are a new homesteader or an experienced

1:14

one, failure is going to be a big

1:16

part. of your journey.

1:19

I know for me, over the years,

1:22

it's helped me a lot to create

1:24

a bit of a process on how

1:26

to work through failures

1:29

and struggles and disappointments. And

1:31

it gives me a chance to extract

1:33

as much learning as I can from those situations.

1:36

So that's what we're going to talk about today.

1:38

And by the end of this episode, you should have a

1:40

rock solid action plan

1:42

on how to take the things that didn't go so

1:44

hot in 2023 and

1:47

turn them into a huge learning

1:49

win for 2024. So

1:52

welcome to the Old Fashioned On Purpose podcast. This

1:54

is a show where we talk about the things

1:56

that progress and modern culture

1:59

has kind of taken away from us. And

2:02

how we can get all that good stuff

2:04

back. I'm your host Jill Winger, and

2:06

I have been homesteading for well over a decade.

2:09

My family and I live in a crazy hard

2:11

climate for growing food, the wide

2:13

open prairies of Wyoming. And I am no

2:16

stranger to tons of

2:18

mistakes, tons of failures, and

2:20

doing everything basically the hard way before

2:22

I figure it out. So I feel very

2:24

qualified to talk on this

2:27

topic. And I hope that some of my strategies.

2:30

will help you as well. So last

2:32

episode, I talked about the

2:34

big wins, big lessons for 2023.

2:37

So I'm not going to go over those in detail. Again, you'll

2:39

have to go back to that episode and listen. And

2:42

today I really want to hone in on the

2:45

homestead pieces of this, although The

2:47

framework that I'm going to teach you today is going to apply

2:49

to really any area of your life where you're trying

2:51

to extract some lessons

2:54

and progress. But like any other year,

2:57

2023 absolutely had some

2:59

wins in terms of food production and homesteading

3:01

and it had some big, meh,

3:04

didn't go so hot. I think some of our big

3:07

mess ups which are kind of par for the

3:09

course for us. Like there's seems like there's always a crop

3:11

and I hear a lot of other people say this too. There's always some

3:13

crop that just like bombs in a given

3:15

year, you'll have one where it's a bumper harvest

3:18

and you'll have others are just like, why didn't this work? And

3:20

for us, we've had

3:23

really good potato and onion harvests. This

3:25

past year was dismal, depressing.

3:28

I could not get squash to grow to save my

3:30

life. The year prior, I had

3:32

a literal mountain of squash, of pumpkins,

3:35

and I had to, like, give them away to everyone, and

3:37

then I had to feed the rest of the pigs. or chickens

3:39

or whatever. And this past year I couldn't

3:41

grow a single one. I think I grew one pumpkin like

3:44

the size of a cantaloupe. That was it.

3:46

The end. So that wasn't great.

3:48

We didn't milk very consistently.

3:51

We had a calf and then life

3:53

just got out of control in

3:55

various aspects of our businesses. And so

3:57

we just put the calf on the cow and said,

4:00

it'll be fine. So I didn't get as much cheese

4:02

making done as I would have liked to this year. Yeah,

4:05

so there were just things I'm like, I wish we could have done it

4:07

better. I was really distracted this year. Last

4:10

episode, I talked about how my word for the year is streamlined.

4:13

My word for this year is streamlined. And that's very

4:16

much coming as the result

4:18

of last year, not being streamlined.

4:21

Now, one little caveat

4:24

with that, I think this

4:26

is just I'm just saying this for my own benefit, I suppose, a

4:28

lot of people I think they look at our life in the past

4:30

with all the different ventures and businesses

4:32

and such. And they probably would be like, well,

4:35

duh, Jill, you did it to yourself. And I totally

4:37

did do it to myself. And I'm well aware

4:39

of that. But I also think that there are times

4:42

when certain opportunities arise

4:44

that you need to say yes to, that you should

4:46

say yes to. And sometimes that creates a measure

4:48

of chaos. And I don't think chaos in and

4:50

of itself is a bad thing. I don't

4:52

think we want to live in a state of chaos all the time.

4:55

But I think there's a balance between chaos and order,

4:57

and we need a little bit of both. And so I'm coming out of

4:59

a season of happy, for the most

5:01

part, chaos, growth, chaos,

5:04

expansion, chaos, good

5:07

things happening, saying yes to amazing opportunities,

5:09

chaos, and now I'm getting strategic

5:12

and streamlined for a time. And

5:14

so I, I attribute a lot of

5:17

our missteps from 2023 and the. world

5:20

of homesteading to be just too much

5:22

going on and I wasn't managing things properly.

5:25

And so I've been spending a lot of time figuring

5:27

out, okay, why did this go wrong? What

5:29

could I have managed differently? And

5:31

how can I be taking a more active role

5:34

in 2024? So, I

5:37

think, before I give you the framework, which

5:39

is a really cool framework called the Homestead Reset

5:42

I want to just underscore the importance

5:45

of this. Because, you know, right now we have all

5:47

this energy and all these people chattering about goals

5:49

and resolutions and we have all the contrarians talking

5:51

about, Not setting goals and not setting resolutions.

5:54

It's kind of funny when you start to see how

5:56

social media patterns work. But

5:58

this whole idea of starting fresh only

6:01

works if you're willing to do

6:03

something different than you've

6:05

done in the past. And it goes

6:07

back to a little phrase one

6:09

of my horsemanship mentors used to say over and over

6:11

and over again. And when I heard him say it, like

6:13

I never really fully grasped it

6:16

to its depth. But

6:18

he would always say when we were riding, You've

6:20

got to do things you've never done

6:23

to get things you've never had. And,

6:26

you know, sounds cute. It has a nice little

6:28

rhythm to it. And I kind of understood

6:30

what he was saying, right? You've got to switch up what you're trying.

6:32

But, like, man, that little

6:35

saying holds a lot of power. And I really sense that

6:38

it's really not about horsemanship at all. It's really about

6:40

life in general. Is that if we want

6:42

different results, we have to do different

6:44

things. We can't keep doing the same things

6:46

over and over and expecting something different to happen.

6:49

Which I think a lot of us would go, well, duh,

6:51

that's obvious. But I don't know, in our human

6:54

patterns, it doesn't always

6:56

happen like that. And I know I myself have

6:59

to catch myself constantly

7:02

from, you know, kind of just bumbling along

7:05

on these certain paths and hoping that

7:08

it's going to be different at the end when I start

7:10

to examine the results. Hope is not a strategy,

7:12

right? We have to take a lot more ownership

7:15

of those situations. And so if there

7:17

were things on your homestead, which I'm guessing there are, because

7:19

you're probably normal like the rest of us,

7:22

there were things on your homestead you just

7:24

didn't love in 2023. You

7:26

cannot go into 2024 hoping

7:28

they will change. I can't go in and

7:31

just hope my potatoes will be

7:33

better this year. I have to figure out why

7:35

they did not produce like they should,

7:37

and then I have to take the measures to change it. I have

7:39

to do something different if I want different results.

7:42

I know it sounds obvious, but it's so insane

7:44

to me how often we humans don't

7:47

act on those obvious things.

7:49

So if we Want to

7:51

avoid a Groundhog Day,

7:53

you know that movie, right? A Groundhog Day style

7:56

repeat of last year's mistakes.

7:58

It's time to take an active

8:01

role in figuring out what went wrong. And

8:03

how we're going to fix it. So, without further

8:05

ado, let's dive into what I call

8:07

the Homestead Reset. You can do

8:09

this any time of year. There

8:11

is nothing magical about January

8:14

1st, right? We put so much pressure

8:17

on January, I think. And

8:19

don't get me wrong, I love the energy that comes with it. I

8:21

love the feeling of freshness. But

8:24

you can take action. Messy,

8:26

imperfect, powerful action any

8:29

time of year. And you should. I think

8:31

we can often wait for The first

8:33

of the month or the first of the year or

8:35

the first of the semester or whatever we

8:37

can use that as a Subconscious procrastination

8:41

where we're not doing it now, right? So act

8:43

now if you're listening to this episode in

8:45

October do this now, right? Don't

8:48

wait, but it's powerful stuff So the first

8:50

thing we're gonna do there's a four there's four

8:52

pieces to our homestead reset and

8:55

I worked really hard So they all start with

8:57

R. So I hope you appreciate that. Anyway,

9:00

first up is review. This is obvious,

9:02

right? I did this in my last week's episode. We're going to

9:04

think about the goals that you set at the beginning of

9:06

the prior year or the prior season or whenever you're doing

9:08

this. And we're going to ask ourselves a few questions.

9:10

So number one, were those

9:12

goals actually realistic.

9:15

So when I look at my, some of my goals

9:18

for 2023, growing

9:21

like 500 pounds of potatoes, was

9:24

it realistic? Probably, because I've grown

9:26

300 pounds of potatoes in the past. But

9:29

it was a stretch. And I

9:32

think there were some things I didn't really set myself

9:34

up for success in, but we'll talk about in the next step.

9:37

The next question to ask yourself is, And

9:39

this is a tricky one, you got to be honest. It might sting a little bit.

9:42

Did the goals you set really

9:45

matter to you? Or

9:48

did you stick them on your list as you were

9:50

planning for 2023 just because they

9:52

looked cool? You thought maybe they'd help you kind of keep

9:54

up with the Joneses, or everyone else was doing it,

9:56

right? You see this a lot in the homestead world.

9:58

I have totally done this. where

10:01

we get this idea of what a

10:03

classic traditional homesteader looks

10:06

like, or what animals they have, or

10:08

what skills they're doing. And we

10:10

feel like we have to put them on our

10:12

goal list, or check them off out of obligation.

10:15

It's really easy to fall into that. And

10:17

I think we all have to experiment with that and

10:19

try it. But the faster you can

10:21

figure out, hey, just because so and

10:23

so on YouTube keeps bees, and

10:26

bees are not my thing, and I don't enjoy them, doesn't mean I

10:28

have to continue doing something. That I'm

10:30

not loving, right? And

10:33

so I think we have to be really honest with the goals.

10:35

Did you not achieve them? Like, did you put them

10:37

on your list for

10:40

out of obligation, out of keeping

10:42

up with the Joneses? Because often when you do that,

10:45

your heart's not really in it to begin with, right? So that's

10:47

first step is review. Second

10:49

step is retrospection,

10:52

okay? So consider what you did

10:55

or did not do. To

10:57

attain your goals. What went wrong

10:59

and what went right? So

11:02

in the case of my potato

11:04

situation I had a goal,

11:07

it was attainable, but

11:09

I didn't do anything different from the previous

11:11

year to really. Set

11:13

myself up for success, right? So,

11:15

the first question in retrospection is, did you have a plan

11:18

or did I just let life happen?

11:20

Well, I let life happen with my potatoes. I

11:23

planted them the same way, I didn't add any amendments

11:25

to the soil, really. I watered them the

11:27

same way and off we went. And I was just expecting

11:29

to like, almost double my yield

11:32

without a lot of different effort up front. That's, Not

11:35

wise, right? That wasn't setting myself

11:38

up for success. Second question, did

11:40

anything unexpected happen that

11:42

derailed your plants? Well,

11:45

they actually did in terms of the potatoes.

11:47

We had a crazy wet

11:50

summer, which was awesome. We had the most beautiful grass,

11:52

but I also

11:54

had more moisture in the ground than I'm used to

11:57

and what I found when I would, you

11:59

know, late summer when I dug up my potatoes and

12:01

started to try to figure out what was wrong, a

12:03

lot of them rotted in the ground. Like

12:05

they just turned into potato

12:07

mush. I haven't had that happen before because

12:09

we usually don't have too much rain. We have never enough rain. But

12:12

that was something out of my control. Now, I

12:14

could have probably helped myself out

12:16

a little bit. In, in not letting

12:18

my automatic water, water as much as it did. I

12:21

think I, even when we weren't getting rainstorms,

12:23

I think I let my, my sprinkler go

12:25

too much and I needed to manage that

12:27

more. Which brings me to

12:30

question number three, what parts within my control

12:33

could I have done differently? I totally could have managed

12:35

my water better. There were parts of the row

12:37

that I figured out later were lower,

12:40

so they were collecting more water. There were parts

12:42

that were higher. I needed to be paying more

12:44

attention to that and making adjustments.

12:47

I also could have weeded more. We

12:49

mulched the potatoes with a really heavy

12:51

layer of straw which was good

12:53

for some of the weeds. But nothing

12:55

is completely foolproof when

12:57

it comes to weeds. And so I didn't manage that

12:59

enough. Now I'm not going to beat myself up over that

13:01

because we had a

13:04

heck of a summer for multiple reasons

13:06

and potatoes had to just go on the back

13:08

burner, but I could have done better. So if I'm

13:10

going to ask what went wrong, that went wrong.

13:12

I think also. I tried

13:14

something new, which I'm glad I tried

13:17

it, but I put the potatoes, I just kind

13:19

of roughed up the ground. And I

13:21

put the potatoes on the ground and then covered them with straw instead

13:23

of digging them in and covering them completely with soil.

13:26

Because that's a lot of work, right? So I was trying to cut

13:28

some corners. And I'd heard people talk about that

13:30

working. And it worked.

13:33

I don't know if it worked as

13:35

well as it would. If I had covered

13:37

them with soil, also some of

13:39

the layers of straw were too thick and I think that

13:41

contributed to the potatoes rotting.

13:44

So that was a learning curve as well, right?

13:46

Okay, So there was review We had retrospection

13:49

and number three we have So now

13:51

that you've identified the gap between

13:54

where you wanted to be, where you plan

13:56

to be, and where you ended up, right? Those

13:58

are, there's two points and there's a big

14:01

chasm in the middle. We get to

14:03

come up with a plan for shortening

14:06

that chasm in our upcoming

14:08

year or our upcoming season.

14:11

So this, I think, is

14:14

the step where you start to put yourself back in power,

14:16

right? You're not a victim of the situation, it's

14:19

not a poor me situation, but we're gonna go, okay,

14:21

cool, this happened, it is what it is, now

14:23

I get to put myself back in the driver's seat to

14:25

figure out how to fix it. So

14:28

I think the first thing I like to do when I'm creating

14:30

the remedy for something that didn't go like

14:32

I thought it would is I

14:34

always look at, how can I gather more data

14:37

about the situation? You know, sometimes

14:40

that's calling a mentor,

14:42

calling a friend. For me, it

14:44

was when I woke up after

14:46

a lot of the derailments we had

14:48

early in the summer that distracted me from the potatoes,

14:50

and when I got to get back out and focus on them,

14:53

it was gathering data by digging down

14:55

and going, Okay, which ones sprouted? Which

14:57

ones didn't? How wet is the soil?

14:59

Oh, it's soggy. Well, this soil is too dry.

15:02

Did the straw work or did it not work? And

15:04

so it was gathering data in the field.

15:07

Sometimes you can gather data in a more scientific

15:09

way. Like I think a lot

15:11

when it comes to gardening about soil and

15:14

soil fertility and soil nutrient

15:16

content. One of the best ways to stop

15:18

guessing is to test your soil. You guys

15:20

know I'm a huge fan of Redmond at

15:22

home soil tests. Use them

15:24

every year. It's not. It's not

15:27

the most super duper comprehensive

15:29

soil test you can get, but it's simple and it's

15:31

going to give you a ton of information that

15:34

is very valuable for a home

15:36

gardener. So you don't have to wonder, okay, was I lacking

15:38

in nitrogen? Did I have too much nitrogen? Am I low

15:40

in phosphorus? You know, you just have that

15:42

data in your hands. And it's

15:44

going to be able to help you

15:47

shape your strategy for the coming

15:49

gardening season. Another part of

15:51

the remedy is asking myself,

15:54

what measures can I put in

15:56

place to reduce human

15:58

air in this situation? So

16:01

I, I talked about that a little bit already,

16:03

you know, like mulch, if we're talking about gardening.

16:06

And of course these. Reset steps

16:08

apply to everything, not just gardening, but we're going to dig,

16:10

we're digging into gardening for the sake of the example.

16:12

A big one with gardening is the water. Like, with

16:14

my potatoes, I had some over watered, some under watered,

16:17

so I could have dialed in my watering system, but

16:19

watering systems as a whole are a huge

16:21

way to reduce human error in gardening. When

16:24

we first started I never had sprinkler

16:27

automation set up and I was watering things by hand

16:29

or it was dependent on me remembering to water

16:32

every day or put the sprinkler in the right places. Things

16:34

just didn't grow as well because, you know,

16:37

we get distracted. We get busy. So

16:39

a huge way that I am able to grow my

16:41

greenhouse and grow my raised beds and

16:44

grow another row of potatoes and onions

16:46

is that we automate the water. It's all on

16:48

timers and systems and Christian

16:51

set that up. It's not something that's in my wheelhouse, but

16:53

that's a game changer. Another

16:55

one with gardening is mulch.

16:58

You know, if I have to weed everything by

17:00

myself, by hand every day,

17:02

like it's not going to happen. There's other things I'm doing in the

17:04

summer and that's, you know, weeds aren't

17:07

always. The end of the world. And I

17:09

don't believe you have to have a perfectly pristine

17:11

garden. But there comes that tipping point

17:13

when you get so many weeds that it

17:15

will choke out your plants. And we actually

17:17

had that happen with the onions this

17:19

past year. Is we had put down some

17:21

fabric and, and poked holes in it. to

17:24

help with the weed situation, but

17:27

there was still enough grass coming up through

17:29

the holes that it did choke out some of the onions.

17:31

And, you know maybe we could have done

17:33

something a little bit different, but mulch is good. Watering

17:36

systems are good. You know, when it comes

17:38

to other pieces of your homestead,

17:41

maybe it's getting in a rhythm of remembering

17:44

when to order chicks, you know, maybe you want to up

17:46

your egg production or you want to up your meat bird production.

17:49

I know something I've struggled with in the past is remembering

17:51

When to order meat chicks in the right windows

17:54

when the hatcheries have them available another

17:56

thing It's been hard for me to remember in

17:58

years past is the breeding windows

18:00

for the cattle Like sometimes I kind of wake up

18:03

in the fall and go. Oh, no, we forgot we missed the window

18:05

We got so busy. So maybe the system

18:07

that you create to reduce human

18:09

error. There is Getting a planner,

18:12

like the old fashioned on purpose planner, and writing

18:14

that out ahead of time when you have that presence of

18:16

mind, so you're able to fall back into your

18:18

systems instead of expecting your

18:20

brain to just remember all that, because that

18:22

just isn't a thing, like, we can't remember

18:24

all of this information all the time,

18:26

so systems, processes, and

18:29

keeping our human tendency

18:32

for error as little as possible out of

18:34

the forefront goes a really long way in

18:36

keeping your homestead. And

18:39

then the last step of

18:42

our four Rs is what I call

18:45

resolve. So we're going to resolve

18:48

the problem. We're going to come up with our

18:50

concrete solution. And I think

18:52

my best advice here.

18:54

is that you need to take

18:56

action immediately on the information

18:59

that you have collected, assimilated,

19:02

written down. Even if

19:05

your solution involves something that's seasonal,

19:07

like gardening, or you know,

19:09

milk cows, or I think this

19:11

is the most important part because it's really easy

19:14

to do a lot of really awesome brainstorming during

19:16

certain parts of the year, then life

19:19

kind of sweeps us away. And

19:21

we either forget we did that, I've totally done

19:23

that, or I had an awesome page of notes, it

19:25

gets stuck in the back of the planner or the notebook, and

19:28

I don't pick it up until the end of the year, and I forgot it

19:30

existed. Or we

19:32

have the best laid plans, and then we don't put

19:35

that snowball of momentum into place, and they

19:37

never happen. So. Let's say we're talking

19:39

about the garden again, right? So if I'm

19:41

going to set myself up for success

19:44

with my potatoes and onions in

19:46

the coming year, right now it's January, I'm not

19:48

getting out there for a while to mess with the soil.

19:50

But there are things I can do immediately

19:53

to start helping next year's

19:55

growing, or this year's growing, rather. So

19:58

some ways you might do this in what you're working

20:00

on is make sure you write it down.

20:02

Make sure you write it down in a place you're not going to forget about

20:05

it. A planner's a great option. Notes

20:07

on your computer can work. I tend to lose

20:09

notes on my computer more than

20:11

I do in paper. It

20:14

just, I have too many places I write things down.

20:16

There's Word, and there's my notes app, and there's Google Drive,

20:18

and there's a blog. Like, there's too many places. So, if

20:21

you have a really central location that you,

20:23

that's in the forefront of your mind all the

20:25

time, cool. Use that. Otherwise, make sure you're writing

20:27

down your thoughts and your discoveries in a place that's

20:30

easy to find again. If

20:32

you need to order stuff, right? Sometimes

20:35

in your data collection you'll realize, Oh,

20:37

I needed this tool, or I needed this seed, or I needed this thing.

20:40

This would make it easier. Order it now. Don't wait.

20:42

Cause you don't know when things are going to go out of stock. Some

20:44

things take longer to ship than you want

20:46

them to, or you just plain forget. Right? So,

20:49

if you were going to try a new

20:52

broadfork for digging your garden this

20:54

year to try to aerate more, get that now. If

20:56

you want soil testing to happen,

20:58

order your soil kits now, even if it's too frozen

21:01

to go get a soil sample. If you want to try

21:03

different varieties of seeds that you think might work

21:05

better for you this year, order them now.

21:07

Do it now, don't wait. It

21:10

will get away from you so quickly if you put

21:12

it off. Another action

21:14

you can take would be to start

21:17

looking for mentors or coaches

21:19

or advice that you can consume

21:21

immediately, right? The hardest

21:24

thing is when you're trying to, like, like, when we're talking

21:26

gardens. You're out in the garden, you're trying to

21:28

pivot, you're trying to improve, but

21:31

you're doing it on top of planting

21:33

season. And I have done that, where I'm like, Oh crap,

21:35

I needed to try this differently, but I don't

21:37

remember how, so I'm like Googling it or trying to read

21:39

books in between planting or changing

21:42

the garden. That's really stressful and that makes

21:44

my blood pressure go up real fast. So try

21:46

to do that education piece for yourself,

21:48

or get some mentorship, get some coaching.

21:51

Talk to smart people in your area, do that now, so

21:53

you have the game plan ready to go. And

21:55

then I mentioned this a minute ago, but I'm going to mention

21:58

it again. Mark the milestones,

22:00

the deadlines, the dates. Not

22:03

just when you're planting, but when

22:06

you need to start preparing the ground, when

22:08

you need to start adding the soil amendments. We're

22:11

out adding manure.

22:13

We're cleaning out the barn today. We're adding that manure

22:15

into the potato raw. Today on

22:17

January, whatever it is, fourth.

22:19

Because I, like,

22:22

if I don't start thinking about it now, I don't

22:24

want to wait till June, potato

22:26

planting day to go, Oh no, I forgot to add nitrogen

22:29

to the soil, right? So start

22:31

now, put it in your planner, put it in your calendar

22:33

so you don't forget and stick

22:36

with it. So that

22:38

is my Homestead Reset that

22:40

I also use for business

22:43

life projects, homesteading,

22:45

gardening, animal management, kitchen

22:48

management. You can use it for so many things. I think

22:50

the biggest thing though is. Don't

22:52

beat yourself up unnecessarily

22:55

if you messed up big time last year,

22:57

if you had animals die, if you had crops

22:59

fail, if you didn't accomplish

23:01

what you set out to accomplish, cool, acknowledge

23:04

it, recognize it, analyze

23:06

it, and then pick yourself up

23:08

and move on. And I think the best way.

23:11

To cure that anxiety, to cure those feelings

23:14

of, you know, kind of feeling down in the dumps is

23:17

action. Action is the antidote

23:19

for anxiety. Action is the antidote

23:22

for feeling like, oh, you know, it's out of my

23:24

control. I don't know what to do. Like, those

23:26

baby steps will take you a long

23:29

way. And I, right now, am taking action

23:31

in so many areas of my life that I kind of feel like

23:33

I let myself down on last year. I could have done better.

23:36

And like, man, as soon as I start to take

23:38

action I feel better. So try

23:40

it out. See what you think.

23:43

No matter how many failures, and I use air quotes,

23:45

failures you've had, your homestead is never

23:47

too far gone. In fact, you're actually in really good company.

23:50

And I've never heard an honest homesteader

23:52

of any kind. I don't care how famous

23:55

they are or how many YouTube followers

23:57

they have or how big their

23:59

homestead is. Like they always.

24:02

We'll admit, if they're being honest, that yeah, there was

24:04

stuff that just didn't do very well this year. And sometimes

24:06

you can figure out why, and sometimes you

24:08

can't. Sometimes it is completely out of your control. So

24:10

roll with the punches, and know that you're

24:13

always going to have some challenges. And I think

24:15

that's a good thing. Because if you're not growing,

24:18

you're dying, right? You got to keep growing. You want

24:20

those challenges. If you

24:22

had it all figured out, I think it would be kind of boring.

24:25

And we homesteaders, that's why

24:27

we're doing this in the first place, is we like

24:29

the challenge. We don't want a boring, easy

24:31

life. So I wish you

24:34

a prosperous 2024

24:37

with wins and victories, but also

24:40

a healthy dose. A challenge.

24:43

Whew. All right, friends. This was a shorter episode,

24:46

but hopefully that was helpful and

24:48

action packed for you. If

24:50

you would like this Homestead Reset

24:53

framework typed out in a

24:55

way that is easy for you to either print

24:57

or just read, because I know

24:59

I am definitely a visual person. I learn better

25:01

by reading than listening, even though

25:03

I do love podcasts. So you can find

25:06

this post over on my blog, ThePrairieHomestead.

25:08

com. And we're going to drop the link to it in the show

25:11

notes. We turned it into a post

25:13

for you. Also, this is the type

25:15

of content I am sending out every

25:17

Wednesday in my email newsletter.

25:19

And so, we try each. month

25:22

to have a framework like today,

25:24

that was a framework, a how to one

25:26

of my signature homestead recipes and

25:28

lots of other good stuff. So if you want to join

25:30

the weekly newsletter, I don't spam you. It's super easy.

25:33

It's super simple. We're going to drop that link down

25:36

in the show notes as well. All

25:38

right, that's it for today. Thanks for listening.

25:40

I hope your reset process

25:42

is enlightening and I will catch you next

25:45

time on the next episode of the Old

25:47

Fashioned On Purpose podcast.